Most of you know that during my last 6 years at Chase I was in New York once or twice a month and, while there were a few colleagues I'll never miss, I came to appreciate the city. It's interesting to feel completely at home in a place where you've never actually lived, but I spent a lot of time there and have many favorite restaurants and shops. In many ways, New York never changes.
Anyway, my last "real vacation" was Las Vegas in May of 2007 and New York that December - with Hurricane Ike in 2008 and the remodeling project in 2009, we didn't make our annual journey. All of this leads up to how we ended up at the Four Seasons
in an executive suite.
My home-away-from-home was always The Palace and once you hit "100 stays", they treat you
very well. I had access to the "Chase rate" long after I left the bank, because my name was "in the system". However, it had been two years since our last stay with them, so it seemed a bit of a stretch to get the same deal. Jerry's friend Dirk (of the Houston Four Seasons) came to the rescue and, although expensive, it was a phenomenal hotel experience.
I should be embarrassed to even admit that we stayed in a room like this - much less publish photos - but I am a "hotel snob" so here goes ... this is our corner living room - with Jerry checking his emails.
A comfy sofa with flat panel TV on the back wall.
One side overlooked Park Avenue and the other had a great Manhattan view, including Central Park.
The tall building with the ornate, green roof is the Plaza Hotel and beyond the Plaza is Central Park.
We loved this Penthouse with the all-glass atrium - I think we could adjust to the lifestyle, if only we had an endless supply of money!
Down the hall, our bedroom had a stunning view of the park ...
Back-to-back skyscrapers run up to the edge of the park, then acres and acres of beautiful trails, with restaurants and a zoo and all sorts of things to look at. The west-side features "Strawberry Fields" in honor of John Lenon - just a block from The Dakota where he lived.
The walk-in his & hers closet & dressing room did not have a view, but there was a flat panel TV in the bathroom ... ahhh, how the other half lives!
Thursday night, we met Chase friends, Madeline Levine and James Castillo for dinner at Chin Chin - home of the Grand Marnier Shrimp. After the entire marketing team was "displaced" during the merger, Madeline went to Citi Bank and James to Met Life - he just recently moved to TIAA-CREF.
It was great to see them and catch up on all the gossip!
Walking back from dinner, we passed my old "home" - beautiful tree and decorations outside The Palace.
Friday morning, we stopped by Rockefeller Center to snap a photo of the tree and look at boots at Botticelli. It was beautiful, but the lights don't show up very well in this shot. We had lunch at Nello and shopped till we dropped - it was FREEZING, but no snow. Jerry ran into a friend at Nello - he really does know someone everywhere we go.
Friday night was dinner and a show at Cafe Carlyle. East-end, home-town guy Steve Tyrell took over for Bobby Short at the Carlyle (after his death) and although we've seen Tyrell numerous times, there's something special about Cafe Carlyle. He sounded great and we had a good time.
We were both really sick before we left Houston and being out in the cold hadn't helped us, so the hotel - who had noticed we were sick - had hot tea and chicken soup waiting for us in our room when we returned from the show. It's nice to be taken care of!
Saturday morning, we headed to SoHo for our usual shopping extravaganza, but it was COLD and we were SICK and didn't have the energy for hours and hours of "mixing it up" with the locals. After a few stops, we headed back up-town to rest and enjoy our beautiful room.
We had heard that we should have dinner at
L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon - rumor has it that when this chef visits restaurants in France, all the diners spontaneously break into applause. Don't know if that's true, but I will say that these folks take the "food as art" concept to a higher level. I'm not 100% sure what all we ate, but everything was delicious and the staff was very kind to us ... several of these guys knew Dirk and worked with him in Houston or at other 4 Seasons properties.
Jerry's ticket connection had managed to get two tickets to the newest, hottest - not even officially "opened" - play on Broadway ... Spider-Man. Center orchestra seats, on the 12th row, on a Saturday night - can't beat that!
Before I get to the play, I have to mention "the Russian". At certain times of the year, Manhattan is an absolute mad-house and "Super Saturday" is one of those times. Traffic was at a stand-still and after waiting 20 minutes, we still couldn't get a cab. Jerry ended up paying the Russian $50 to get us there on time. Flash-backs of our trip to the airport in Palermo during the taxi-strike come to mind.
He said he was sorry to charge so much, but that he wouldn't be able to get another fare that hour and he GUARANTEED he would get us through the traffic jam to the theatre on time. While talking on his cell to other drivers and negotiating stand-still traffic, he managed to get us to 42nd Street - all while enthusiastically sharing his political views. After immigrating from Russia 19 years earlier he is very concerned about the current direction of our country ... he loved George Bush and had a few hilarious things to say about the 2008 election that I can't write down.
Minutes after sitting down, we notice that Alan Alda is sitting right in front of us - how odd is that? He was with his daughter or grand-daughter (a surprisingly goth-looking girl) and another young couple. He seemed to be enjoying himself.
The play was truly something to see ... Spider-Man and his arch enemies launched themselves from the stage to various "landing pads" in the upper balconies - flying just a few feet over our heads. The set was absolutely amazing and the performance was flawless. There have been a number of serious accidents in early runs and we could see how it might happen - it was an incredible show and you should try to see it if you're in New York any time soon. That said, they added a female spider character that was never mentioned in the movies and that was a bit strange.
Upon returning to our hotel room, the guys from L'Atelier had sent up hand-made chocolates with a clear candy plaque featuring the Spider-Man Playbill cover image. Can't say enough good things about the Four Seasons!
Sunday morning we enjoyed a great breakfast and headed to LaGuardia to wait in a long security line for the flight home. All in all it was a wonderful trip!
